Loading device for strapping machines



Nov. 27, 1934. N. F. PARKER LOADING DEVICE FOR STRAPPING MACHINES Filed April v 28, 1953 Altormys Patented Nov. 27, 1934- UNITED STA LOADING DEVICE 'FOR .STRAPPING MACHINES Norman F. Parker, San Bernardino, Calif.

Application April as, 1933, Serial No. 668,408

4 Claims.

My invention relates to strapping machines of the character employed to apply straps, bales, and the like, to boxes and similar articles, and has particular reference to a method of and 1 means for supplying prepared straps to the machine.

My strap loading device is particularly adaptable to machines of the character set forth in the George D. Parker Patent No. 1,777,474, in which is disclosed a machine for applying straps transversely across the covers on boxes, such as are used in the citrus industry.

The machine employs straps which consist of a length of wire strap material having the extreme ends thereof bent and sharpened to form prepared driving ends so that as the strap is bent about the cover of the box the driving ends are positioned to be driven into the side walls of the box to thus secure the strap to the box. The common practice in machines of this type is to supply the straps to the machine one by one as they are to be used, or to mount-a suitable magazine upon the machine which may be loaded with a number of straps and which includes a strapfeeding mechanism which picks up the straps from the magazine one at a time and supplies them to the operating mechanism of the machine.

One method of inserting these straps in the machine is illustrated in the Parker patent above referred to, as including carded straps; that is, straps supplied to the consumer in the form of a bundle of straps laid out upon a suitable frame or card which hold a predetermined quantity of straps in a package with the straps arranged one upon another ready to be fed into the magazine of the strappingmachine. Such carded straps are disclosed in the George D. Parker Patent No. 1,739,085.

It is frequently, however, undesirable to incur the additional expense required in packaging the straps upon cards, and it is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a loading device-for strapping machines, or similar machines, in which the straps may be supplied to the magazine of the machine by arranging them on a form immediately prior to their insertion into the magazine.

character set forth in the" preceding paragraph in which the loading device consists of a holder for a predetermined number of straps which will hold the straps one upon another in proper order to permit them to be readily dep magazine of the osited into the the opposite side of the machine (not shown).

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from a study of, the following specification, read in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein p r Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a strapping machine, sh0wing the magazine with my loading device secured thereto;

Figure 2 is a front elevational view of the magazinesection of the machine shown in Figure 1, illustrating my loading device attached thereto; Figure 3 is a detail sectional view taken along line II1--III of .Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of a modified form of. a holder which may be employed with my invention. r V A 1 Referring to the drawing, I have illustrated in Figure 1 a portionof a strapping machine, such as that disclosed in the George D. Parker Patent No, 1,777,474, hereinabove referred to, this machine including a pair of uprights lextending i' above a suitable box-supporting table, not shown, the uprights 1 constituting the mounting for a reciprocating strap press 2 more fully disclosed in the above noted patent.

Mounted between the uprights l is a strapfeeding mechanism 3 which includes a pairof strap-supporting rests 4 (only one of which is shown herein) it being understood that there is a similar strap supporting rest upon the opposite side of the machine. The strap-supporting 8 5 rests 4 constitute a rest upon which the prepared bent and sharpened end 5 of a wire 'strap 6 may rest with the pointed end 5 thereof projecting toward the front of the machine. When the strap is in this position it is ready to be pressed forwardly of the machine by means of a strap-feeding dog 7- which is reciprocably mounted for movement forwardly and rearwardly of the machine in a suitable cage 8. The strap-feeding dog? is arrangedto be-moved forwardly and rearwardly of the machine by means of an operating lever 9 mounted upon a shaft 10 which extends crossways of the machine to engagea similar lever and operate a strap-feeding-dog upon Thus whenever the lever9 is operated'the dog 7 will engage the strap which is at that time resting upon the rest 4 and press the same forwardly into the position indicated in Figure l of the drawing so that the strap may turn and fall over the curved right-hand end 11 of'the strtp-supporting rest 4 and thus fall into a suitable slot 12 and pass to a position immediately above the box or other article to which it is to be attachedwith the point of the strap extending downwardly 11g ready to be bent over and driven into the side of the article.

Rising immediately above the strap-supporting rest 4 is a pair of spaced vertical guides 13 and 14, the space between these guides being just sufficient to admit the bent end 5 of the strap 6 so that the two guides 13 and 14 constitute a strapholding magazine in which a plurality of straps may lie one upon the other in perfect order ready to drop upon the rest 4 as the lowermost strap is fed outwardly from the rest by the strap-feeding box.

The straps are additionally supported and held in place in the guides 13 and 14 by means of a rear guide plate 15 which lies immediately behind the guide 14 and is spaced therefrom only by such distance as will accommodate thediameter of one of the straps 6.

As illustrated particularly in Figure 1, the upper end 16 of the guide strap 15 is hingedly-mounted to the lower portion thereof, as indicated at 17, so that the other end 16 of the guide 15 may be moved outwardly to open the strap magazine to allow the insertion of straps therein. This construction permits the insertion of a card of straps, such as is disclosed in the George D. Parker Patent No. 1,739,085.

While it is relatively inexpensive to apply straps to cards, the cost of operation of the strapping machines may be materially reduced if the straps can be supplied to the user of the machine in loose bundles but when so supplied to the user of the machine it is necessary to feed them into the machine one by one, making it inconvenient to use such loose straps. However, I propose to avoid the use of the carded straps by supplying a form or assembly magazine 18 upon which the straps may be assembled immediately prior to their insertion into the machine, thus permitting the loose straps to be purchased in quantities and assembled upon a form only as is required for the feeding of the machine.

The form 18, illustrated herein, comprises a sheet of relatively thin material, preferably sheet iron, having a rectangular body section 19, the

length of which is approximately the length of the body portion of one of the straps between the pre-formed ends 5 thereof, the ends of the sheet of material comprising the form being bent back upon the body section, as indicated in Figure 3, to form a guiding edge 20, the angle of which, with respect to the body section, being the same as the angle between the formed end 5 of the strap and the body section thereof.

Preferably the extreme end of the sheet comprising'the form is bent rearwardly, as indicated at 21, to lie substantially parallel with the portion 20 thereof, and to formtherewith a slot 22 which assists in guiding the straps into place upon the form. The form may be filled by dropping the straps one at a time into the form from one side edge 23 thereof, the ends of the strap engaging the turned back section 20 of the form to hold them in place and to guide them into position upon the form. The opposite side edge 24 of the form is preferably provided with a tongue 25 turned inwardly either from the body material 18 or from the ends 20 thereof to close the slot 22 at one end against which the lowermost strap placed upon the form may rest. After the form has been completely filled with straps,

which now lie one upon the other in an orderly manner with all of the formed ends of the straps extending in the same direction, a locking or holding device may be employed to retain the they pass into the guide space.

the form, as indicated at 30, and are preferably provided with a suitable handle mechanism 31 by which the lever 29 may be rotated in one direction to withdraw the rods from the sections 20 and 21 of the form and may move in the opposite direction to project the ends of the rods into the strap locking position.

In order to permit the ends of the rods 26 and 27 to be completely withdrawn from the space 22, I prefer to provide a guide bearing 32 upon the body of the form positioned closely adjacent the turned back section 20 thereof.

It will be noted from an inspection of Figure ,,100

3 that the locking rods, handle and guide are on the forward side of the form 18, while the assembled straps themselves all have their body sections upon the opposite or rear side of the sheet constituting the form so that there is no interference with either the assembly of the straps upon the'form or with the ejection of the straps from the form by the mounting or manipulation of the locking mechanism.

The form with the straps assembled thereon ma be placed upon the strapping machine, as is indicated particularly in Figures 1 and 2, by placing the form upon the upper ends of the uprights 1 with the points or prepared driving ends 5 of the'straps projecting toward the front of the machine and then the locking device 26-27 may be operated to release the assembled straps from the form and allow them to drop by gravity into the space between the guides 13, 14 and 15.

In order to assist in properly aligning the space Y 22 on the form with the space between the guides 13, 14 and 15, I prefer to provide a funnel-like guiding structure upon each of the uprights, this guiding structure being preferably formed of a sheet of material 33'extending across the machine between the uprights 1 and having the ends thereof preferably bent around the uprights 1 and secured in place thereon by means of the cross brace 34 which normally is employed to interconnect to and brace the uprights l.

The ends of the sheet of material 33 may be cutas indicated at 35 and bent back upon the body thereof in substantially the same configuration as the ends of the form '18, the dimension of the loop or space incorporated within the bent section of the ends of the sheet 33 above the cut 35 being slightly in excess of-the dimensions of the loop enclosed by the sections 20-21 of the form, while the upper edge of thesheet 33 at the ends may be flared outwardly as indicated at 36 to assist in the guiding of the end secmay be dropped and guided into the space between the guides13, 14-. and 15 without permitting the wire straps to become displaced relative to each other and without permitting the ends of these straps to become entangled with each other as Thus with a simple funnel-like guiding-structure and a metal form upon which the straps may be assembled, the strapping machine is readily adapted either to the employment of the prepared, carded straps, or to the loose straps.

In Figure 4 I have illustrated a modified form of my invention in which the rectangular form 18 may be dispensed with and the straps thus assembled upon a pair of end forms and 41 which may be formed of a sheet of material, preferably sheet iron, bent in the shape indicated in Figure 4, to provide a pair of relatively flat body sections 42 and 43 interconnected by means of a forwardly projecting loop 44, which loop encloses a space 45 constituting a guide channel in which the ends 5 of the straps may be assembled and guided into proper position in the strapping machine.

The end forms 40 and. 41, when assembled with a number of the straps 6 may be placed in the funnel-like guide members 37 illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 and the straps may then be released from the form sections 40 and 41 and dropped into the machine.

It will be understood that any suitable means for holding the straps within the form sections 40 and 41 similar to the locking bars 26 and 27 employed with the form 18, may be used, though I have illustrated a relatively simple locking device as comprising merely a pair of pins 46 and 47 insertable through suitable openings in the ends of the form sections, which, at the time the sections are assembled and placed upon the funnel-like guides 37, may be withdrawn to allow the straps 6 to pass from the form sections into the machine.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that I do not wish to be limited to any of the details of construction shown herein, except as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a strapping machine for applying prepared metal straps to articles, including a magazine on said machine for holding a supply of prepared metal straps and feeding mechanism for feeding said straps from said magazine to said machine, the combination of means for loading straps into said magazine in aligned order including a farm having a length equal to the length of said straps and having end portions thereon forming a sliding guide support for the ends of said straps whereby a predetermined number of straps may be assembled on said form in a predetermined order, and means on said magazine for engaging said form to guide the end sections thereof into alignment with said magazine whereby the straps on said form may be 'slidably moved into said magazine without disturbing the order thereof.

2. In a strapping machine for applying prepared metal straps to articles, including a magazine on said machine for holding a supply of prepared metal straps and feeding mechanism for feeding said straps from said magazine to in a predetermined order, means on said magazine for engaging said form to guide the end sections thereof into alignment with said magazine whereby the straps on said form may be slidably moved into said magazine without disturbing the order thereof, and means for locking the assembled straps upon said form and for releasing said straps to permit them to slide into said magazine.

3. In a strapping machine for applying metal straps having prepared driving ends thereon bent with respect to the body portion of said straps, and including a magazine on said machine having guides for engaging the bent ends of said straps to hold them in aligned order, and including a feeding mechanism for feeding said straps from said magazine one at a time, the combination of a loading device for said magazines ineluding a form for engaging the bent ends of said straps for holding a predetermined number of said straps thereon in aligned order, and means on said magazine for engaging said form for aligning the ends of the straps thereon with the guides in said magazine, whereby said straps may be slidably moved from said form into the guides of said magazine without disturbing the order thereof.

4. In an attachment for strapping machines of the type employed to apply metal straps hav ing inturned and sharpened driving ends thereon, and having a magazine formed of guides engaging the inturned ends of said straps for holding said straps in aligned order, said attachment comprising a form having a guide channel at each end thereof for slidably engaging the inturned ends of straps for holding a predetermined number of said straps in aligned order thereon, locking means passing through said channel in the path of movement of said straps on said form for holding said straps on said form, and means for releasing said locking means to allow said straps to slide from said form.

, NORMAN F. PARKER. 

